Alberto Fernández attended Law School at the University of Buenos Aires. He graduated at the age of 24, and later became a professor of criminal law. He entered public service as an adviser to Deliberative Council of Buenos Aires and the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. He became Deputy Director of Legal Affairs of the Economy Ministry, and in this capacity served as chief Argentine negotiator at the GATT Uruguay Round. Nominated by newly elected President Carlos Menem to serve as National Superintendent for Insurance, served as President of the Latin American Insurance Managers’ Association from 1989 to 1992, and co-founded the Insurance Managers International Association. He also served as adviser to Mercosur and ALADI on insurance law, and was involved in insurance and health services companies in the private sector. Fernández was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of Argentina in 1992, and was awarded the Millennium Award as one of the nation’s Businessmen of the Century, among other recognitions. During this time he became politically close to former Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde.

Fernández married a fellow University of Buenos Aires law student, Marcela Luchetti, in 1993. They separated in 2005. Fernández and Luchetti have a single child, Estanislao (born 1994), known in Argentina for being a drag performer and cosplayer who goes by the stage name Dyhzy. Fernández is a supporter of Argentinos Juniors’ football team.

He was elected on 7 June 2000, to the Buenos Aires City Legislature on the conservative Action for the Republic ticket led by former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo.

He gave up his seat when he was appointed Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers by President Néstor Kirchner upon taking office on 25 May 2003, and retained the same post under Kirchner’s wife and successor, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, upon her election in 2007.

A new system of variable taxes on agricultural exports led to the 2008 Argentine government conflict with the agricultural sector, during which Fernández acted as the government’s chief negotiator. The negotiations failed, however, and following Vice President Julio Cobos’ surprise, tie-breaking vote against the bill in the Senate, Fernández resigned on 23 July 2008.

He was named head of the City of Buenos Aires chapter of the Justicialist Party, but minimized his involvement in Front for Victory campaigns for Congress in 2009. Fernández actively considered seeking the Justicialist Party presidential nomination ahead of the 2011 general elections. He ultimately endorsed President Cristina Kirchner for re-election, however. He was campaign manager of the presidential candidacy of Sergio Massa in 2015.

Since 2014, Fernández has been in a relationship with journalist and stage actress Fabiola Yáñez, who has fulfilled the role of First Lady of Argentina since Fernández’s presidency began. The couple own three dogs: Dylan (named after Bob Dylan, whom Fernández has praised and cited as an inspiration) and two of Dylan’s puppies, Prócer and Kaila.

On 1 March, he also announced a restructuring of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), including the publications of its accounts – which had been made secret by Macri in a 2016 decree. The AFI had been criticized for targeting public figures for political purposes.

In December 2017, he responded to a female Twitter user by saying “Girl, what you think doesn’t worry me. You better learn how to cook. Maybe then you can do something right. Thinking is not your strong suit”.

On 18 May 2019, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that Fernández would be a candidate for president, and that she would run for vice president alongside him, hosting his first campaign rally with Santa Cruz Governor Alicia Kirchner, sister-in-law of the former Kirchner.

On 11 August 2019, Fernández won first place in the 2019 primary elections, earning 47.7% of the vote, compared to incumbent President Mauricio Macri’s 31.8%. Fernández thereafter held a press conference where he said he called Macri to say that he would help Macri complete his term and “bring calm to society and markets,” and that his economic proposals do not run the risk of defaulting on the national debt.

His relations are strained with Jair Bolsonaro, who refused to attend his inauguration, accusing him of wanting to create a “great Bolivarian homeland” on the border and of preparing to provoke a flight of capital and companies into Brazil. Donald Trump’s top adviser for the Western Hemisphere, Mauricio Claver, warned him in 2019 saying: “We want to know if Alberto Fernández will be a defender of democracy or an apologist for dictatorships and leaders in the region, whether it be Maduro, Correa or Morales.”

Alberto Fernández questioned the conclusions the Organization of American States that the reelection of Evo Morales was unconstitutional for electoral fraud. Fernández legitimized Morales as President of Bolivia, and granted him asylum in Argentina in December 2019.

Argentina defaulted again on May 22, 2020 by failing to pay $500 million on its due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.

On 31 December, Fernández announced that he will send a bill in 2020 to discuss the legalization of abortion, ratified his support for its approval, and expressed his wish for “sensible debate”. However, in June 2020 he stated that he was “attending to more urgent matters” (referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the debt restructuring), and that “he’ll send the bill at some point”. In November 2020 Fernández’s legal secretary, Vilma Ibarra, confirmed that the government would be sending a new bill for the legalization of abortion to the National Congress that month.

On 4 September 2020, Fernández signed a Necessity and Urgency Decree (Decreto 721/2020) establishing a 1% employment quota for trans and travesti people in the national public sector. The measure had been previously debated in the Chamber of Deputies as various prospective bills. The decree mandates that at any given point, at least 1% of all public sector workers in the national government must be transgender, as understood in the 2012 Gender Identity Law.

On 12 November 2020 Fernández signed a decree legalizing the self-cultivation and regulating the sales and subsidized access of medical cannabis, expanding upon a 2017 bill that legalized the use and research of the plant and its derivatives. In June 2019, during his presidential campaign, he had signalled his intention to legalize marihuana for recreational purposes but not other types of drugs.

Responses to the outbreak have included restrictions on commerce and movement, closure of borders, and the closure of schools and educational institutions. The announcement of the lockdown was generally well received, although there were concerns with its economic impact in the already delicate state of Argentina’s economy, with analysts predicting at least 3% GDP decrease in 2020. Fernandez later announced a 700 billion pesos (US$11.1 billion) stimulus package, worth 2% of the country’s GDP. After announced a mandatory quarantine to every person that returned to Argentina from highly affected countries, the government closed its borders, ports, and suspended flights.

Due to the national lockdown, the economical activity suffered a collapse of nearly 10% in March 2020 according to a consultant firm. The highest drop was of the construction sector (32%) versus March 2019. Every economical sector suffered a collapse, with finance, commerce, manufacturing industry and mining being the most affected. The agriculture sector was the least affected, but overall the economic activity for the first trimester of 2020 accumulates a 5% contraction. It is expected that the extension of the lockdown beyond April would increase the collapse of the Argentinian economy. On March, the primary fiscal deficit jumped to US$1,394 million, an 857% increase year-to-year. This was due to the public spending to combat the pandemic and the drop in tax collection due to low activity in a context of social isolation.

In June 2020 he told journalist Cristina Pérez to “go read the Constitution” after being questioned about his attempts to install a government-designated administration in the Vicentín agricultural conglomerate.